Stef's Blog - a native London Southlander and unrepentant 'Conspiraloon™' who doesn't trust anyone, not even himself. Sometimes I take pictures. I also enjoy swearing immensely and think much faster than I can type, so each post comes guaranteed to include at last one confusing typo. OK?

Monday, August 18, 2008

When banks implode...

An illustration of the kind of disgraceful public behaviour that can happen when things start to get wobbly and there's too much social cohesion and not enough CCTV surveillance and involuntary medication...

And oh:"Mr. Rijock is a veteran of the conflict in Vietnam and Cambodia, and holds the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and Bronze Star Medal."

That's what happens to the smart kids when they return from the war:

"After serving as a banking lawyer in an international law firm, he spent the decade of the 1980s as a money launderer and advisor to narcotics trafficking organisations operating in North and South America."

Documentary on the events that led to the economic collapse of Argentina in 2001 which wiped out the middle class and raised the level of poverty to 57.5%. Central to the collapse was the implementation of neo-liberal policies which enabled the swindle of billions of dollars by foreign banks and corporations. Many of Argentina's assets and resources were shamefully plundered. Its financial system was even used for money laundering by Citibank, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan. The net result was massive wealth transfers and the impoverishment of society which culminated in many deaths due to oppression and malnutrition.

Wall Street tumbled overnight and shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell to their lowest in nearly 20 years after Barron's said the government may have no choice but to nationalise the two housing finance groups. This could wipe out existing holders of the two companies' common stocks and result in losses for other asset holders.

Former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said the worst of the global financial crisis is yet to come and a large U.S. bank would fail in the next few months as the world's biggest economy hits further troubles.

Banks were the biggest drag on the FTSE 100, with Barclays , Royal Bank of Scotland , HSBC , HBOS , Lloyds TSB and Standard Chartered down 1.1 to 3.5 percent.

"The widening in U.S. Libor ... is very significant because it suggests that banks are under pressure to finance debt that they have to repay by the end of the year," said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of private client research at Charles Stanley.

"Certainly, judging by the data that I have seen, the numbers are enormous which is going to leave the banks very constrained. The credit crisis is going to keep on claiming victims throughout the remainder of the year."

POTI, Georgia - Russian soldiers took about 20 Georgian troops prisoner at a key Black Sea port in western Georgia on Tuesday, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint, and commandeered American Humvees awaiting shipment back to the United States.ADVERTISEMENT

The move came as a small column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles left the strategic Georgian city of Gori in the first sign of a Russian pullback of troops from Georgia after a cease-fire intended to end fighting that reignited Cold War tensions. The two countries on Tuesday also exchanged prisoners captured during their brief war.

However, Russian soldiers took Georgian servicemen prisoner in Poti — Georgia's key oil port city — and commandeered the U.S. Humvees.

Russian forces blocked access to the city's naval and commercial ports on Tuesday morning and towed the missile boat Dioskuria, one of the navy's most sophisticated vessels, out of sight of observers. A loud explosion was heard minutes later.

Several hours later, an Associated Press photographer saw Russian trucks and armored personnel carriers leaving the port with about 20 blindfolded and handcuffed men riding on them. Port spokesman Eduard Mashevoriani said the men were Georgian soldiers.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said officials were looking into the reported theft of the Humvees.

I sometimes wonder just when it was over the period 1933-45 when the majority of German people overcame all that state propaganda and started to suspect that they actually were, for want of a better term, the bad guys

I do wonder what exactly the American's are playing at with the missile defence stuff. The idea that Iran or North Korea would launch a missile attack on Europe or the US is outrageous nonsense and everyone knows this. So why are they doing this? It seems to be a rather blatant act of provocation for whatever purpose.

Some American on Newsnight saying the exact opposite of the truth as usual.

On that Newsnight item with the loud mouthed American accusing Russia of been Imperialist and an aggressor nation it was nice to see the BBC's usual high standards of impartiality and balance by having a Russian commentator on to counter him who could hardly speak English and was completely useless and inarticulate.

"I can't. Kindasleazy is fucking whore. A douchebag supreme. Please, if there is a god, give me five fucking minutes with this cunt. Let me drive a telephone pole up her ass while i smash her fucking head in with a blunt object.

I don't know HOW FM Lavrov can put up with her shit, i couldn't. As soon as she opened her mouth i would have to drop-kick the bitch."

It's hardly news that the U.S., like many countries, espouses standards that it routinely violates, but still, even in light of such routine hypocrisy, wouldn't you think that this, from Condoleezza Rice today, on an airplane to U.S. reporters while traveling to a NATO meeting, would be too brazen to utter:

Russia is a state that is unfortunately using the one tool that it has always used whenever it wishes to deliver a message and that's its military power. That's not the way to deal in the 21st century.

Whatever one's views are on the justifiability of each isolated instance, it's simply a fact that the U.S. invades, bombs, occupies, and interferes in the internal affairs of other countries far more than any other country on the planet. It's not even a close competition.

Just during the time Rice has served in the Bush administration, we bombed, invaded and occupied Afghanistan; did the same to Iraq; repeatedly bombed Somalia, killing all sorts of civilians; fed bombs to Israel as they invaded and bombed Lebanon; top political officials (led by John McCain and Joe Lieberman) have repeatedly threatened, and advocated, that the same be done to a whole host of other countries, including Iran and Syria. That's to say nothing of the virtually countless interventions and bombings in the pre-Bush, "peacetime" years -- from the Balkans and Panama to Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and on and on and on.

JERUSALEM, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday expressed his concern over the possibility that Russia might deploy missiles in Syria, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni cautioned such a move would destabilize the Middle East.

Such a move by Russia would jeopardize peace not only in the Middle East, but in the whole world, Israeli broadcaster Army Radio quoted Peres as saying on his 85th birthday.

The political veteran made the remarks when commenting on Israeli media reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who arrived in Russia on Wednesday on a two-day visit, offered to allow Moscow to deploy Russian surface-to-surface Iskander missiles in its territory.

"Weapons of mass destruction are less dangerous without a means for launching them, but once a launching system is developed, the situation will be terrible," Peres was quoted as saying, pointing to the northern neighbor which Israel lists as an enemy state.

Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post reported Assad's offer was publicized on Wednesday, the same day when the United States signed an agreement with Poland to place part of a missile defense system on the Polish soil, a move that Russia insists would endanger its security.

Also in response to this possible scenario, Livni said Russia should not agree to Syria's request for missile deployment, stressing that this could destabilize the Middle East.

"It is a mutual interest of Russia, of Israel and of the pragmatic leaders and states in the region not to send long-range missiles to Syria," local daily Ha'aretz quoted her as saying, while citing Syria's links with Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah as justification.

On Wednesday night, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to affirm the ties between the two countries. Olmert's office said the two leaders talked about regional and bilateral issues and looked to advance bilateral relations.

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